Shane Victorino's name has been mentioned frequently in advance of the trade deadline. / Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

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The Reds can visit October with the team they have. Before Monday’s game, they were 21 games over .500. They could finish 30-31 and win 91 times, same as they did in 2010. When you are in their situation, and you are thinking trades, you have to think past simply getting to October. What can we do that will make us better when we arrive?

That would have been one guy. That one guy is wearing a halo on his head, literally. Zach Greinke’s arm is going to be formidable in the playoffs, assuming the L.A. Angels get there. Greinke could buckle some knees.

The Reds need a bat off the bench, preferably left-handed, though early returns are good on Xavier Paul. Their never-ending search for a leadoff hitter/center fielder still could end with Denard Span, Shane Victorino or Juan Pierre. Any of those three would be good, for different reasons.

None would buckle knees in October.

No one can foresee injuries. But given their record now, and their schedule the rest of the way, the Reds will be in the playoffs. The Reds are built for The Big 162. Steady, not spectacular starting pitching wins that race. The Reds have good clubhouse chemistry, superb defense and bullpen, hitting that has started to be efficient.

How do you like them in a five-game lightning round or (gulp) a one-game High Noon?

No Greinke? No trades.

They’re simply not cost effective, unless the Phillies plan on donating Pierre or Victorino and using their charity as a tax writeoff. Neither player is signed for next season, meaning they will be two-month rentals. You want to thin an already skinny prospect pool to get a guy who will platoon for a couple months?

Span, now a Minnesota Twin, is signed for at least two more years. That’s attractive. He’ll make a manageable $4.75 million next year. He’ll be 29 next Feb. If you believe the advanced fielding stats, Span is no better than average defensively. But he does have a .354 on-base percentage. He has scored 50 runs, he can steal a base. He doesn’t strike out a lot.

But the Twins want young pitching, according to sources. The Reds don’t have a lot, certainly not enough to trade.

Pierre would play. . . where, exactly? He hasn’t played centerfield in four years. There are reasons for that. If he plays left, he takes at-bats from Ryan Ludwick, who is currently crumbling walls. Victorino was an all-star last year. He would expect to play every day. He wouldn’t.

“We feel like we have holes in our roster,’’ Brandon Phillips said Monday afternoon. Every team in the NL does. The Reds have fewer than anyone, save for that one starter with October bona fides.

Johnny Cueto comes closest. He’s also historically not the pitcher after the All Star Game that he is before. Cueto threw a career-high 185 innings in 2010. He was 9-1 between April and July, and 2-5 with an ERA over 4 in August and September. In ’09, Cueto was 7-4 in the first three months, and 4-7 in the last three. He isn’t a big guy. It’s fair to wonder about his October strength. He has pitched 139 innings already, just 17 fewer than he threw last year.

This numbers-crunching is coma-inducing. But it’s instructional. The Reds have one pitcher who scares hitters. He’s in the bullpen.

I’d wanted to make a case that another team in the NL does, in fact, have that war horse, the way the Phillies did in 2010, with Roy Halladay. I couldn’t. San Francisco comes closest, with Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong. The Nationals are close, too, with Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman and Gio Gonzalez. But will the Nats allow Strasburg to pitch beyond 160 innings? How might those kids do in their rookie postseasons?

Who else? The Dodgers with Clayton Kershaw, Chris Capuano and (ahem) Aaron Harang aren’t going to dominate anyone. I like Atlanta’s Tim Hudson in a big-game setting. But the Braves don’t have a second stud. Tommy Hanson is a very hittable 11-5. Pittsburgh’s best is a slumping James MacDonald and an overachieving A.J. Burnett. St. Louis doesn’t have Chris Carpenter.

And so on. Ryan Dempster is still available. He’s a complementary guy.

Reds GM Walt Jocketty has made useful deadline deals in the past – Chuck Finley, Woody Williams, Will Clark, Larry Walker – but there isn’t one to be made this year. Not with Greinke on the Left Coast.

Ten consecutive wins, and 17 of 19, could make even the most aggressive dealer stop and think. That’s what the Reds should do. Think. And stop. They can win a playoff spot with what they have. Their best chance to do better than that is off the market. Time to do nothing.